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Categories: Archaeology: General, Paleontology: Dinosaurs
Published Chimpanzee stone tool diversity


Archaeologists and primatologists have shown that stone tool using chimpanzees in West Africa have distinct and recognizable material cultures.
Published Discovery of extinct prehistoric reptile that lived among dinosaurs


Researchers have discovered a new extinct species of lizard-like reptile that belongs to the same ancient lineage as New Zealand's living tuatara. A team of scientists describe the new species Opisthiamimus gregori, which once inhabited Jurassic North America about 150 million years ago alongside dinosaurs like Stegosaurus and Allosaurus. In life, this prehistoric reptile would have been about 16 centimeters (about 6 inches) from nose to tail -- and would fit curled up in the palm of an adult human hand -- and likely survived on a diet of insects and other invertebrates.
Published What ancient dung reveals about Epipaleolithic animal tending


Tiny crystals in ancient animal dung serve as key evidence in a new analysis suggesting the possibility that hunter-gatherers at Abu Hureyra, Syria, may have tended small numbers of animals just outside their dwellings between 12,800 and 12,300 years ago.
Published What killed dinosaurs and other life on Earth?


Determining what killed the dinosaurs 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period has long been the topic of debate, as scientists set out to determine what caused the five mass extinction events that reshaped life on planet Earth in a geological instant. Some scientists argue that comets or asteroids that crashed into Earth were the most likely agents of mass destruction, while others argue that large volcanic eruptions were the cause. A new study reports that volcanic activity appears to have been the key driver of mass extinctions.
Published Study unearths ancient reef structure high and dry on the Nullarbor Plain


Researchers using advanced satellite imagery have discovered an ancient reef-like landform 'hidden' in plain view on the Nullarbor Plain, which has been preserved for millions of years since it first formed when the Plain was underwater.
Published Discovery and naming of Africa's oldest known dinosaur


An international team of paleontologists has discovered and named a new, early dinosaur. The skeleton -- incredibly, mostly intact -- was found over the course of two digs, in 2017 and 2019.
Published Medieval mass burial shows centuries-earlier origin of Ashkenazi genetic bottleneck


In 2004, construction workers in Norwich, UK, unearthed human skeletal remains that led to a historical mystery -- at least 17 bodies at the bottom of a medieval well. Using archeological records, historical documents, and ancient DNA, British researchers have now identified the individuals to be a group of Ashkenazi Jews who may have fallen victim to antisemitic violence during the 12th century. Their findings shed new light on Jewish medical history in Europe.
Published The Southern Arc and its lively genetic history


A vast paleogenetic study reveals insights on migration patterns, the expansion of farming and language development from the Caucasus over western Asia and Southern Europe from the early Copper Age until the late middle ages.
Published DNA analysis shows Griffin Warrior ruled his Greek homeland


Using new scientific tools, archaeologists discovered that an ancient Greek leader known today as the Griffin Warrior likely grew up around the seaside city he would one day rule. The findings are part of three new studies that examined the ancient DNA of the Griffin Warrior and 726 other people who lived before and during the Bronze Age to learn more about their origins and movements across three continents surrounding the Mediterranean Sea.
Published Fossils of giant sea lizard that ruled the oceans 66 million years ago discovered


Fossils of a giant killer mosasaur have been discovered, along with the fossilized remains of its prey.
Published Scientists say a shipwreck off Patagonia is a long-lost 1850s Rhode Island whaler


Scientists investigating the remains of an old wooden ship off the cold, windy coast of far southern Argentina say it almost certainly is the Dolphin, a globe-trotting whaling ship from Warren, R.I., lost in 1859. Archaeologists have spent years researching the ship's origin without making a definitive identification, but a new analysis of tree rings in its timbers has provided perhaps the most compelling evidence yet.
Published AI-based method for dating archeological remains


By analyzing DNA with the help of artificial intelligence (AI), an international research team has developed a method that can accurately date up to ten-thousand year-old human remains.
Published Analysis of everyday tools challenges long-held ideas about what drove major changes in ancient Greek society


A modern scientific analysis of ancient stone tools is challenging long-held beliefs about what caused radical change on the island of Crete, where the first European state flourished during the Bronze Age: the 'Minoan civilization.'
Published Medieval monks were 'riddled with parasites'


Research examining traces of parasites in medieval Cambridge residents suggests that monks were almost twice as likely as ordinary townspeople to have intestinal worms -- despite monasteries of the period typically having far more sanitary facilities.
Published All the better to better eat you with -- dinosaurs evolved different eye socket shapes to allow stronger bites


Large dinosaur predators, such as Tyrannosaurus rex, evolved different shapes of eye sockets to better deal with high bite forces, new research has shown.
Published Prehistoric podiatry: How dinos carried their enormous weight


Scientists have cracked an enduring mystery, discovering how sauropod dinosaurs -- like Brontosaurus and Diplodocus -- supported their gigantic bodies on land.
Published Evidence that giant meteorite impacts created the continents



New research has provided the strongest evidence yet that Earth's continents were formed by giant meteorite impacts that were particularly prevalent during the first billion years or so of our planet's four-and-a-half-billion year history.
Published The speed at which spinosaurid dinosaur teeth were replaced accounts for their overabundance in Cretaceous sites


Spinosaurid dinosaurs were able to develop up to three generations of teeth at the same time, a high replacement rate that explains why so many teeth of this type have been found in Cretaceous sites.
Published Octopus lures from the Mariana Islands found to be oldest in the world


An archaeological study has determined that cowrie-shell artifacts found throughout the Mariana Islands were lures used for hunting octopuses and that the devices, similar versions of which have been found on islands across the Pacific, are the oldest known artifacts of their kind in the world.
Published Oldest DNA from domesticated American horse lends credence to shipwreck folklore


Feral horses have roamed freely across the island of Assateague off the coast of Maryland and Virginia for hundreds of years, but exactly how they got there has remained a mystery. In a new study, ancient DNA extracted from a 16th century cow tooth from one of Spain's first Caribbean colonies turns out to be from a horse. Analysis of the DNA suggest that old folk tales claiming that horses were marooned on Assateague following the shipwreck of a Spanish galleon are likely more fact than fiction.